Six Flags St. Louis hit with blackout on first day open

ST. LOUIS, April 3 (UPI) -- The 2015 season at the Six Flags amusement park in St. Louis got off to a sluggish start Friday, when a power outage brought the rides to a screeching halt, park officials said.

The park, located in the St. Louis suburb of Eureka, opened Friday for the summer season's first day of operations. The rides operated normally until about 4:15 p.m. local time, when a power blackout interrupted the equipment.

Six Flags St. Louis, which is home to several famous thrill rides, put an emergency plan into effect immediately following the outage, officials said. Because there was already an evacuation plan on the books, the park did not need to call in firefighters, Fox 2 St. Louis reported.

Roller coaster riders had to manually free themselves from the rides and were escorted safely off each attraction by park personnel.

"People have been evacuated from the rides," fire official Scott Barthelmass said in a report by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "We haven't gotten an emergency [call]. My understanding is that there isn't a life safety issue."

No injuries were reported due to the blackout, and officials are still trying to determine the cause.

The park closed two hours following the outage, and Six Flags St. Louis tweeted Friday afternoon that the park would reopen Saturday morning.

"We have experienced a power outage in the park. All guests are currently being escorted off of the rides," the park said on its Twitter page."

First opened in 1971, Six Flags St. Louis features numerous daunting thrill rides -- such as Superman: Tower of Power, Batman: The Ride, and the Ninja.